Stimtfs DelicicE Sylvdrum, 379 



era of Christianity ? " We can readily subscribe to this doc- 

 trine ; and feel, indeed, quite at a loss to set limits (under 

 favourable circumstances) to the natural duration of this mo- 

 narch of the forest. 



A fine picturesque oak is perhaps the most beautiful object 

 in nature. And here we would entreat all such as are so 

 fortunate as to be the possessors of these " venerable and 

 living antiquities of nature," not to mutilate their forms and 

 destroy their character by cutting out as unsightly objects, 

 the raunpikes, or rampikes as they are called, that is, the 

 dead and denudated arms, that have endured the blast of 

 ages, — a practice which we are sorry to see adopted in the 

 parks of some of our nobility and gentry, and of which the 

 example is set even in the royal domain at Windsor. The 

 bold projecting limbs, now " blasted with antiquity," though 

 no longer adorned with rich and verdant foliage, still add 

 greatly to the grandeur and picturesque effect of the tree ; they 

 preserve the proper balance of the parts, which is conse- 

 quently destroyed by their removal, and serve as memoran- 

 dums of its pristine vigour, to define the original outline and 

 extent of the whole ; the imagination supplying to the mind 

 what is no longer actually visible to the eye. We should as 

 soon think of removing some ivy-mantled turret, or mouldering 

 moss-grown buttress, from an ancient castellated ruin, with a 

 view to improve its beauty, as of depriving our oaks of their 

 raunpikes, and " curtailing them of this fair proportion." 



Delighting as we do in our " old patrician trees," it is 

 never without regret that we see the woodman exercising his 

 craft upon them, or hear the sound of the axe echoing through 

 the grove. The demands of the state, however, — the cupidity, 

 the extravagance, or, perhaps, the bad taste of landed proprie- 

 tors, — the blasting and tempestuous elements, — or, lastly, the 

 unsparing hand of time, — some or all of these are causes per- 

 petually in operation to ravage the forests and despoil the 

 country of its ornamental timber. It is therefore with no 

 ordinary satisfaction that we hail Mr. Strutfs successful 

 attempt to portray some of the choicest specimens of our 

 forest scenery, and leave to after-ages a memorial of them, 



" Quod nee Jovis ira, nee ignes, 



Nee poterit ferrum, nee edax abolere vetustas." * 



Mr. Strutt is already known to the public, not only as 

 an elegant and accomplished scholar, the translator oi Clau- 



* " Which, Jove's rage, 



Nor fire, nor sword shall raze, nor eating age." 



Ovid\ Met. (Sandys's translation.) 

 c c 2 



